The move is part of a restructuring plan as the St. Paul-based company takes over Nalco Holding Co. The Business Journal reports Ecolab expects it can reduce its workforce largely through attrition. Most of the eliminated postions are corporate administrative jobs. Ecolab also expects these changes to reduce the need for future postions and help reach cost-savings goals.

Petroleum and the chemical used to clean up the 2010 Gulf oil leak have shown up in the eggs of pelicans that nest in western Minnesota. Swift County is home to North America's largest colony of American White Pelicans, which winter in the Gulf of Mexico. Biologists will monitor how the chicks hatched from polluted eggs develop.

St. Paul-based Ecolab plans to buy Houston-based Champion Technologies Inc. for about $2.2 billion in cash and stock to complement last year’s purchase of Nalco Holding Co. and grab a larger share of the oilfield-chemicals business, Bloomberg News reports.